Thank you for your e mail. Unfortunately the Madison Theatre has been gone for many years. It was in the city of Mansfield and was called the Madison Theatre and was next door to the Soldiers and Sailors Museum, now called the Memorial Museum. Where it stood is now a small park. I remember it well and it is sad that it was torn down before people in this city realized the benefit of restoring these beautiful buildings. We are fortunate to have the Ohio Theatre which has been restored and houses our Renaissance Theatre and our Mansfield Symphony Orchestra. Hope this information is helpful. Lydia Reid

The predecessor to the Madison was called the Opera House and then the Madison until a fire in 1929:

Another costly fire that oldtimers remember destroyed the old Opera House, or Madison Theater, at Park Avenue West and Walnut Street on February 10, 1929. Two men lost their lives in that disaster when they were crushed following the collapse of the west wall of the theater.

The Opera House, later named the Madison, was the cityâ€™s leading theater for many years. The entrance was off Park Avenue West next to the Baptist Church which stood on the site of the Farmers Bank. Soon after the rubble of the theater fire was cleared away, the Madison Theater we know today was built on the site.

The theater must have reopened briefly after closing in 1975 because I saw “Twentieth Century” there in the winter of 1979. I think some of the local folks were trying to save it from the wrecking ball. They showed old films and cartoons. The theater was still in good shape – just a bit dusty. I remember the long staircase that lead to the balcony, the cavernous auditorium and the art deco lighting fixtures.

The Madison (along with the Ohio Theatre) both closed in 1980. An attempt was made to restore the Madison but it failed. Attention was then turned to the Ohio which was renovated as the Renaissance Theatre. According to Marquee vol. 20:2, the Madison opened in 1931.

Scott Schaut’s book “Historic Mansfield” says that the Madison Theatre was demolished in 1986.

The book also mentions a Majestic Theatre, located on Walnut Street, which was in operation by 1925, and says that the first permanent movie theaters in Mansfield, opened in 1908, were the Orpheum, the Arris, and the Alvin.

Given what kencmcintyre has written
about the “Old Opera House” or “Madison Theatre” going up in smoke in February of 1929,
could this organ have been destroyed in the fire?
Did the later Madison Theatre have an organ, or not? (I wouldn’t think so, given that opened in 1930, by which time sound movies were underway).
Does anybody know for sure
what happened to this organ?
Thanks!

The correct address of the Madison Theatre was 32-34 Park Avenue West, not “Park Street”.

The WurliTzer organ that burnt in 1929 was Opus 1822, a Style B X Sp of two manuals and five ranks; it was shipped from the factory on 23 December 1927. Source: The WurliTzer Pipe Organ / An Illustrated History, David L. Junchen and the ATOS, 2005, page 681).

I knew the Madison Theatre fairly well as its paperboy in the early 1950s, and there was no organ in the new (1930-1931) building.